Calipari rails against NCAA, one-and-done

May 16, 2013|Reuters

The Sports Xchange

Calipari rails against NCAA, one-and-done

Kentucky coach John Calipari expressed his displeasure during in an interview on Thursday with the NBA's age-limit rule for players and suggested a possible secession from the NCAA if something isn't done about it.

Calipari is frustrated with the NCAA and rules that he believes hurt his program and college athletes in general. He has called on the organization in the past to give more incentives to players.

"Can we continue to separate, can we continue to do this with these rules the way they are? I'm the one guy out there saying, 'We've gotta change this somehow. We've gotta encourage these kids to stay two years,'" Calipari said in the interview with WKJK in Louisville. "But the NCAA's gotta do some stuff. And if they don't do it, we need to separate from them. I'm not afraid to say it.

"Look, they've embarrassed me. I've done nothing, so they're not going to come and show retribution to me and do stuff. I don't really care."

In the past few years, a string of Kentucky players have left for the NBA after one season in college. The latest is Nerlens Noel, who suffered a knee injury last season but still decided to enter the NBA Draft this year.

The NBA's age-limit requirements are part of the collective bargaining agreement between the players and owners and not established by the NCAA.

"Something's gotta change with this one-and-done rule," Calipari said. "I seem to be the only coach saying anything. You know why? No one wants to see these kids two years here. They don't want to see them for two years, so now we're all good with one year.

"It's wrong for high school kids, it's wrong for college kids, it's wrong for the NBA, so why won't we come together and do something about it?"